A conventional baler is a piece of farm machinery that is mounted to the back of a farm tractor and towed so as to rake and gather hay, straw, corn stalks, etc. that has been cut and is spread over the ground, and compact it into bales.
Such balers are classified into round balers and square balers and function to collect and form hay, straw, corn stalks, etc., into round-type bales and rectangular (hexahedral)-type bales, respectively. Particularly, round balers further have a function to seal cylindrical bales with a wrapping material to prevent the introduction of moisture or foreign materials into the bales in order to store the bales as animal feed later.
In the case of square balers, while the balers also form hay, straw, corn stalks, etc. into rectangular bales in order to store the bales as animal fodder or bedding, if an object to be compacted into bales consists of thick, hard, long stalks such as from corn, etc., neither square balers nor round balers can effectively compact the stalks into bales.
A conventional square baler includes on a front side of a frame a connection part that is towed by a tractor, wherein a power transmission is provided on the connection part to receive power from the tractor. A pickup part is provided in a manner of being off the ground on one side of the frame so as to pickup hay, straw, corn stalks, etc. during powered rotation so that picked-up vegetation is carried to a bale chamber while being cut to a predetermined size by a carrier part provided on the back of the pickup part. The hay carried to the bale chamber is compressed into a rectangular (hexahedral) bale by a powered reciprocating plunger. Here, a compression density of the vegetation is regulated by a tension bar provided in the bale chamber, and a length of the bale is regulated by a wheel to measure the length of the bale. When formed to have a predetermined shape (size), the bale is bound by a binder. The binder includes a twine knotter that binds bales so as not to be untied. Bound bales are successively pushed towards the back side of the bale chamber and discharged out of the bale chamber via a bale chute.